Taste of Shanghai - Ashfield

I first went to Taste of Shanghai during the first 2 weeks it was opened. I thought the food was ok, but still preferred Shanghai Nights. Since then, we haven't been back. But we have noticed that they get more and more packed every time we walk past, and seeing all the different reviews on the net, I thought we should go back for another visit.

We arrived early, around 11:30am and all the tables were already full. Luckily, we only had to wait about 15mins to get a table. Their menu is quite extensive and offer a lot more main meals than the other Shanghainese restaurants around Ashfield. But being lunch time, we wanted more dumplings and noodles than a whole fish etc.

Pan fried pork buns

My must have at any Shanghainese restaurant is their Pan fried pork buns. Soft and fluffy on top, crispy crunchy bottom and a juicy, soupy filling. The Taste of Shanghai version isn't bad. Its crispy and fluffy and juicy and soupy. BUT, I find the juice/soup a bit too rich for my liking. Most places have a lovely clear, sweet, golden pork broth in the buns. Their version is actually a deep brown cloudy broth, as if they've put too much soya sauce and other seasoning in it. I also found it much fattier than the other places. Apparently the owners also own the butcher shop across the road with the same Chinese name, so we suspect they might also be using different cuts of meat from other places.

Steamed pork buns

The steamed pork buns suffered the same fate as the pan fried version. Too fatty and just not delicate enough in flavour. They were however, made really well.

Dried scallop fried rice

I loved the fact that its served in a wooden bucket like thing. The fried rice was quite tasty with a small mound of fried dried scallops on top. However, I found the rice really REALLY oily. When we got to the bottom, there was a pool of oil. Easily 2-3 tablespoon full, swimming in the bottom. I actually felt really greased up and ill after eating all of it.

Overall, the food is nice, but I find the food too oily for my liking and will probably be sticking to my other favourites for noodles, rice and dumplings. With that said, I do like the look of all the main meals that were served around us and will probably be coming back to try those dishes out.

Taste of Shanghai
264 Liverpool Road
Ashfield, NSW, 2131
Ph: (02) 9798 2877


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Happy year of the Tiger!

Finally Chinese New Year falls on a weekend this year! This means I'll be home for both CNY eve and CNY day! Usually my mum slaves for 2-3 days just to cook up a CNY meal, this time I'll be home to help!

CNY setup

The men of the family decided to contribute by going to the Fish Markets to pick up a lobster. They also grabbed 2 dozen oysters, sashimi and sea urchin (uni) to bring back as a snack. I guess they were feeling guilty because they went and bought a mixed seafood platter and pigged out on it before coming home!! Like what the!? I mean, we're only having a 13 course feast in 3 hours time!

Oysters

Uni - Sea Urchin

Salmon Sashimi

Our 3.7kg Lobster

This somehow reminds me of a scene in Aliens

Please don't eat me!

Cleaning the lobster

Luckily our family have all worked in a restaurant and was more then adequate in preparing the lobster. Firstly, you need to get the lobster to pee everything out. And the best way is to shove a chopstick up its hole. Doesn't look pleasant, but it happens every time you order lobster at a restaurant.


This baby was so huge our giant cleaver wasn't strong enough for it. So dad grabbed a hammer to help with the chopping.

Mystery stuff

We've only been chopping up lobsters for the last 15-20 years, but we've never seen so much yellow stuff in it. We were arguing what the hell it is. I'm saying its roe. Sister claims in brains. Cousin reckons its poo. Someone was saying hair. I've just never seen so much inside a lobster before! Anyone know what it is?

Dad basically scoped it up and put it aside. If its roe, we might steam it with some eggs tomorrow night. As dad was chopping up the lobster, it decided to fight back. The muscle reflex caused the leg to bend, which then caused one of the giant spikes to embed itself into my dad's finger. Blood comes gushing out when he pulls the spike out and my sister takes over whilst I clean him up.


Dad got revenge by cooking up the lobster in heaps of ginger and shallot sauce, which was then put on top of a bed of pan fried crispy vermicelli! No rice needed tonight since everyone was eating the lobster sauce soaked noodles on the bottom! YUMMM!!! Usually we get e-fu noodles, but every single grocery store around us was completely sold out! All 6 of them!

I decided to contribute by making gyoza / potstickers / dumplings for something different this year.

Pork, prawn and mushroom filling

Since you must have prawns during CNY, I half bashed, half chopped up a heap of king prawns. Then I added a little pork mince to help it bind, some chopped button mushrooms, wongabok and coriander. This was seasoned with fish sauce, sugar, pepper and sesame oil.

My babies cooking on the stove

Upskirt!

The Gyozas look a little burnt, but it was actually the starch water going brown rather than the actual wrapper. Luckily it looks a bit burnt, but didn't taste it! In fact, the gyozas had a lovely sweet juice from the prawns, mushrooms and wongabok. This was the only dish that was gobbled up! But then we had so much food!

Pigs trotter, mushrooms and black hair moss

Must have dish during CNY. We usually take the leftovers and add it to a congee or soup.


This dish has fish maw, mushrooms, dried oysters and dried scallops. Again, another must have. We usually freeze this dish and use it in stir fries, soups and other stuff for the next month or two.

8 treasure duck

Mum decided to try a different duck this year. The 8 treasure duck is stuffed with glutinous rice, dried shrimp, dried scallops, preserved meat, peanuts and a heap of other chinese herbs. This is then slowly steamed for 2 hours until the rice absorbs all the ducky goodness and falls apart when prodded with a spoon.

Sea Snail / Conch of some sort

For some reason my cousin was obsessed with these when he saw them at the fishmarkets. No idea why as our family never eats this. I tried 2, but my cousin ended up eating 90% of this dish! The kids refused to touch it! hehe

Hong Kong chicken wings

Its been a few years since we made this. Usually we would make it for the Moon Festival, but for various reasons, we haven't made it for awhile. Basically you take a aw chicken wing, carefully pull out the bones. Then you stuff it with a mixture of pork mince, prawns, mushrooms, water chestnuts and a heap of other stuff. You then steam them until its mostly cooked. Then you batter and deep fry these babies! Dad's contribution!

Steamed whole baby barramundi!

Stir fried lettuce

Fish and lettuce is a must have for CNY. We kept it simple since there were so many other rich and complicated dishes already.

Roast pork

Tong Yuen

This is a MUST MUST have for CNY. The glutinous rice balls signify the togetherness of a family. I know a lot of families make a sweet version. But where my parents came from, we've always had a savoury version. The broth is made of chicken stock, heaps of dried shrimps, dried scallops, daikon, dried squid, wongabok and other goodies.

The spread!

2 days of preparation, 13 courses, 20mins of eating

Happy Chinese New Year people! May the year of the Tiger bring you good health, wealth, love and happiness. ROARRRRR!!!

New Taste Noodle House (Lao Fu Qing) - Ashfield

Whenever I am eating in Ashfield, 8 times out of 10, I would choose to eat Shanghainese. Of those 8 times, I would say 7 times is with Shanghai Nights. I've tried atleast 3/4 of the restaurant in Ashfield, and I consistently go back to either Shanghai Nights or the local Kebab joint, Metro 1.

I was trawling on eatability awhile ago and noticed there was a restaurant in Ashfield called Lao Fu Qing that had decent ratings. I decided to try the place out and couldn't find it! I tried on 2 separate occasions! Today I made sure I double checked google maps before I decided to hunt the place down. Success!


Strangely enough, the restaurant seems to have two names? New Taste Noodle House on the menu, but Lao Fu Qing on the sign outside. Some things have both names on it.


I've actually walked past this restaurant a few times, never noticing the name and almost instantly dismissing it as the modern type restaurant with small serves and bad food served on square plates category. Boy was I wrong!


Before I get onto the food part, I must apologise for the dodgy photos. I only realised when I sat down that my camera had a flat battery! I was completely devastated when this happens, especially when I try a new place! I was almost tempted to leave the restaurant and come back another day with a fully charged camera! hehehe Luckily for camera photos.

Anyway, food! The menu has a entree section and a traditional snacks section. I wasn't too sure what the difference was, so I assumed the snacks section was small serves like the entree section. Based on that assumption, and the thundering noise coming from my tummy, we decided to order 2 snacks and 2 mains between 2 people..... *cough*

Spicy minced pork Dou Pi - $6.80

This came out looking like a murtabak. The chinese name is spicy minced pork in tofu skin. What came out seemed to be more doughy pastry than tofu skin pastry. Nevertheless, the pastry was crispy and oh so moreish. The filling was a layer of sticky rice topped with a spicy, garlicky pork mince. SO GOOD! I'm definitely hoping to try their other Dou Pi dishes.

Boiled Pork and chive dumplings - $8.20

If I thought snack meant small portions then I was wrong. For $8.20, you get 12 of these babies. Big, plump, juicy dumplings. These are definitely freshly made and not of the frozen variety. The chives were a fresh bright green and the pork had a lovely bite to it. And did I mention these babies are huge?

Taiwan beef brisket noodle soup - $10.50

This was a clean rich broth with big flakey chunks of beef.

Hu Nan beef tripe noodle soup with spicy minced pork sauce - $10.50

When this huge bowl came out, I automatically assumed it was a big bowl, lots of soup, not much substance. It wasn't until I dug my chopsticks in did I realise how much food we had actually ordered! The bowl had a huge wack of noodles, chunks of meat and heaps of tripe, pickled veggies, bok choy and........peanut butter. That's right....peanut butter. I had a WTF moment and then went whatever! If that's the way the chef made it, that must be what the dish is like in Hu Nan and bravely stirred the peanut butter in. And you know what? It works! The peanut gives a lovely creaminess to the soup and mellows out the chilli. Were the minced pork sauce was I have no idea. But I did like the chunks of meat! Not bad for $10.50. I actually couldn't finish this bowl and took home a huge container of leftover noodles!

The reason I didn't find the restaurant the first 2 times was that I assumed it was down Liverpool Rd with the other restaurants. Little did I know it was actually up near the quieter end of town. Quite unfortunately actually, because they have really good food! Its actually one of the few restaurants in Ashfield that I'm excited to have found! (I actually rushed home to blog about it, how sad is that?!). The restaurant is clean and comfortable, with plenty of seats for a large group of people. Certainly not something you find it a lot of other restaurants in Ashfield!

New Taste Noodle House (Lao Fu Qing)
243 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield, 2131
(Ph) 02 9716 6838

Sorry! And here are my excuses....

I know, I know, I've been absolutely shocking with my bogging! But I do have good reasons! Something has seriously preoccupied ALL my time for the last few months, and that is.....

Butters! I was originally going to name him Butter, but I've probably watched a bit too much South Park and keep calling him Butters, so Butters it is! Originally I had wanted a Male Chocolate Labrador, who I was going to name Snickers. You know, chocolate...packed full of nuts? hehehe But I absolutely fell in love with Butters and couldn't wait to take him home!

This is a photo of Butters when he was just 6 weeks old. Since I couldn't pick him up until he was 8 weeks, I put his photo onto my desktop and just drooled over him! hehe

This is what he looks like when we finally picked him up. Very "Marley and Me" isn't it?

Its been a good 10+ years since I've had a puppy, and I basically had to relearn everything all over again. When to feed, medicate, train, toilet train etc etc. I basically rush straight home after work, dump everything and grab my camera before running out to the yard. No time for cooking, no time to make bentos, and I stopped going out for awhile to spend time with my baby! Its only been 2 months, but he's grown up so much since then! I didn't realise how much until I compared the photos!

But enough of the excuses, how about a bit of food porn?

First up, my first attempt at ever making an Okonomiyaki from scratch.

I've cooked them at a restaurant where everything is prepared and all you need to do is slap it on a hot plate. But to make from scratch it also unbelievably easy!

The basic batter is:

1 cup Okonomiyaki Flour (Or just plain flour if you don't have any)
3/4 cup Dashi stock (Water with dashi powder mixed in)
1 egg

Mix the batter together and add enough chopped cabbage to taste. I like my Okonomiyaki with heaps and heaps of cabbage. I also added some chopped bacon in this one. You can always add seafood, veggies or other meats. I put enough ingredients so there is JUST enough batter to bind it.

Throw onto a hot pan, form a circle and flatten. Cover with a lid and cook for a few minutes until the bottom is golden. Flip and repeat. Just make sure the batter is cooked through. Drizzle with heaps of Okonomiyaki sauce (Bulldog sauce), Kewpie mayo and garnish with bonito flakes. I also had some seaweed flakes, but I couldn't find it!

Gyoza. Another incredibly easy thing to make. The wrapper is a store bought Gow Gee wrapper. The filling can be anything you want. I use pork mince, heaps of diced wongabok or other green veggies. Throw in some diced mushrooms, black fungus or water chestnuts. Add any herbs you like i.e. Shallots, Coriander, chives etc. Season with salt, pepper, sugar, soya sauce or fish sauce. Wrap them however you want.

To cook, have a hot pan with some oil in it. Place the gyoza into the pan and pan fry for a minute or so. Add in enough hot water (maybe 1/4-1/2 cup depending on the pan) to create heaps of steam. Cover and turn down the heat. Let the steam cook the Gyoza. When its cooked, take the lid off, crank up the heat again and let the bottoms crisp up and go golden brown. You can add extra oil if you need. Flip onto a plate so everyone can see its beautiful bottom!

Ever since my trip to Houston, I've been absolutely fascinated with American food. Nothing can be more American than a good old burger. So I decided to make my own version!

Looks like an ordinary burger until you bite into it.....


Do you see it yet?

MmMMmm Cheesey.....By stuffing the meat patty with a nice wedge of cheese, means you get to bite into a pocket of oozey melty cheese! Just be careful, it is really really hot!

I've also been messing around in the dessert arena. My new favourite is a green tea red bean cake:

I'm still trying to perfect this dessert. I want to achieve the texture of the Bread Top version of the cake. I'm going to need guinea pigs to try this out!

That's a simple chocolate mousse topped with macadamia nut brittle for texture.

My bentos haven't been forgotten either, I just don't make it as frequent!

Check out my penguin sauce container! Open the "head" and the beak becomes a sauce spoon!

Xmas was also insanely hectic. We had a family vacation organised which severely limited when I could do my annual xmas bake! Unfortunately, the only weekend I could do it also clashed with the big Bloggers xmas meet! *cries*

I was glad it was much cooler this year, compared to the 34 degrees last year. 34 degrees is bad enough, but combine that with a solid 12 hours infront of an oven and its just hell! Anyway, so what did my friends get in their xmas goodies bag this year?

Cranberry and Pistachio biscotti

Orange Almond Biscotti

Rocky road in the making - Check out the size of my bowl!!

Peanut butter cookies

Shortbread

Rum balls

Rum balls all packed

Some of the goodies all packed

Phew! That was a crazy few months! I've still got heaps of blogging to catch up on, so lets hope to see more posts from me!